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Domestic Violence Survivors - Vashawn

Vashawn
Duluth, MN

It does hurt

I was almost thrown; I was almost pushed out of a moving car going down a freeway. I’ve been thrown through a glass table, busted lip, I’m sorry, I’ve had phone books thrown at me. It doesn’t seem like a phone book would do any damage, but it does hurt. And I’ve been choked, just some pretty bad things…

I’ve always told them it was either something else or an accident or something like that, because I didn’t want the guy that I was with to think I was reporting them, and then something really bad or something worse happened, because I didn’t have anywhere to go at the time…

When I went to the emergency room, from registration to the end, you go in and register, and they take your information, and they ask how it happened, how the incident occurred. I did lie, and I did tell them, as far as falling through the glass table, that I slipped on some grease or something and I fell, and they did the x-ray and they examined the cuts and everything, bandaged them, as far as any other questions, as far as how it happened, they didn’t really do to much checking into it or follow up or anything…

Not much the police can do

The biggest thing is you don’t want them to have all the information of what happened ,and then there’s something small that just makes it all unravel, and this person is just out there roaming free and in a rage, because he almost got picked up, and because he almost went to jail, but didn’t

I’ve called the police twice in the years I’ve been abused. I’ve seen between my dad and mom that there wasn’t really anything that the police could really do, because if there wasn’t any bruises or if there wasn’t any signs that there was anything wrong or that he did anything, then they wouldn’t have done anything. So then the police are out he’s upset. And they leave and he’s still in a rage….To me there’s really not too much the police do, cause it’s either they get calls like this all the time or there is just not enough evidence…